The traditional way of exchanging information between parties who are in the same physical location is by the physical exchange of business or contact cards. An individual who is actively engaged in any sort of social or business networking will end up being encumbered by numerous business cards carrying no more than names, addresses and phone numbers and no other way of actively assessing the business or social compatibility of the card provider and there is no active tie to the party's online profile.
Where parties are not in the same physical location, on-line dating and social networking constitute internet-facilitated modalities for meeting persons particularly in social engagements.
In on-line dating, members complete user profiles that are kept in a central database. Users can then search the central database to further their social interests. Upon identifying compatible social interests, messages are exchanged via the intermediation of the service provider.
In social-networking services, users fill out profile information that is stored in a central database. Those profiles are associated with other users in an internodal network arrangement where each user is linked to one or more third-parties through another user with which they have a pre-existing personal or business relationship. Users employ various search criteria to identify a subset of other users whom they may be interested in meeting and are allowed to contact or view the profiles of other users.
The key limitation of both on-line dating and social networking services is that both are online dominated and do not easily tie in to a user's day to day interaction with the offline universe. In other words, cyber world contact precedes real world contact and there is always the danger that the cyber profile is overly embellished and at marked variance with the real world person.
U.S. Patent Application 20050174975 deals with a wireless communication methodology wherein real world contact coincides with cyber world contact whereby a user may access information about a specific unknown person in their general location in order to decide whether potential compatibilities (either business or personal) may exist between them. In the '975 patent application, a methodology is described whereby a user broadcasts a search for compatible social or business interests in their general physical vicinity, receives and electronically reviews information about a potential contact within his/her vicinity and initiates contact by sending the user's profile back to the potential contact, whereupon it is hoped that real world contact will then ensue. The drawback to this system is that the user spends their time broadcasting and sifting through a myriad of online social protocols, using intelligent devices having image and data display capabilities rather than spending valuable time making the far more profitable flesh to flesh contact.
There is therefore a need for a wireless internet-facilitated networking device and methods of use thereof wherein the real world contact precedes cyber world contact in both social and business intercourse. For socially or professionally active individuals who meet other social or business interests all the time, exchange of cards is often the most convenient way to perpetuate that contact. Even then, business cards as it were, carry very little information, often have no pictures, and remain bland and faceless long after the contact has faded from memory. In social situations in particular, cards are not often available resulting in the inconvenience of locating pen and paper or such. Further, there is often the need to revisit and reassess the social or business compatibility of a contact in a more dynamical setting.
Many electronically aided exchange of information between two previously unknown social or business contacts tend to be too device-dominated in that valuable face to face time is lost viewing and classifying information downloaded on the electronic device. Often, there also exists a need post-contact to further explore the contact in relative anonymity before deciding to share private as opposed to public data.
Nor is social or business contact necessarily limited to natural persons. In bilateral exchange of information facilitated by electronic means, one of the parties could very much be an establishment, such as a government, hospital, or business or event organizer where such electronically aided exchange of information may be used to further a business purpose.
Authentication tokens have been used to promote relatively quick access to secured data and other resources. Physical tokens include objects that are read by an access control device to determine whether a user presenting the token should be given access. As the token holder approaches or otherwise submits the token, the access control device interrogates the token to make the determination.
Tokens of varying costs and complexity have been developed. For instance, tokens routinely incorporate cryptographic mechanisms for authentication. Encrypted codes are commonly stored within token memory for eventual decryption by the access device. To this end, tokens additionally rely on dedicated processors and/or memory for use during authentication. Though not necessarily used for authentication, tokens additionally include a set of generally unalterable data that is set by manufacturers. Such data includes serial numbers, manufacturer identifier data, time of manufacture, and/or other manufacturer controlled information used for inventory, quality control and other accounting purposes.
Bilateral, per transaction, exchange of electronic or digital tokens between persons (natural, business or premises) desiring to further their contact will provide some measure of convenience and security in accessing each other's secured profile in a virtual environment and afford the persons opportunity to further their contact in a real world if mutuality exists.